Last weekend while traveling to Arkansas, we noticed that our large drawer under the stove was opening during travel. This was our second drawer in the Grand Design Imagine 2600RB to fail.
One month after moving into the rig full time, the brace holding the bathroom drawer broke during a long haul over bumpy roads. This was an easy fix requiring some wood glue and nails to replace the staples used by the factory that had failed.
The drawer below the stove was a bit more difficult! The actual rail system was damaged at some point causing the drawer to never fully close.
Once we realized the problem, the only solution was to replace the rail system completely! Because this drawer is where we hold our pots, pans, and baking sheets, the weight of the drawer is substantial. We decided to upgrade to a higher quality residential system able to handle weights of up to 100 lbs. We also opted for the soft close drawer rails because of the 5lb pull needed to open the drawer.
We purchased the Richelieu Self Closing Drawer Slide at Lowe’s along with the rear wall support brackets. The most difficult part of this repair was ensuring the rails were straight from front to back. Because of the limited space and so few hands, we devised a tool that was the exact width of the drawer. Then we held that tool up and ran it from the front of the drawer opening between the two rails to the back towards the wall. With both rails touching the tool to ensure the proper width between the rails, we marked where the support brackets would need to be screwed into the back wall.
We have not tested the drawer/rails under a travel day scenario, but the quality and build of the new rails is far superior to the stock item we removed from the drawer. (the original rails were also surprisingly secured to the wall using staples only) We are hoping that this will be the end of our drawer troubles for at least a few months but we can say that we are learning a lot about our rig as we slowly have to repair breaking items.!
We just experienced this issue this past weekend on our second trip in our 2800BH. All three main kitchen drawers are not properly aligned, rear supports are stapled to thin plywood which is screwed to a single vertical support, and the rail ends are left floating, which allowed one bottom rail to keep slipping out of the support. As noted in the previous post, a proper repair requires a rebuild and alignment of the support structure and we’ll likely go with new rails as well (great idea!). The drawer mechanism for the outside gas stove is also askew and likely requires a similar effort.
What a headache! Something I didn’t mention in the blog was that our thin plywood on the posterior wall was only screwed into the wall with one screw on one side leaving even the support board poorly secured and “floating” on the left side. It was definitely worth the rebuild for one fact alone- there are vital Rig components under these drawers like water lines, heat venting, electrical…. when these drawers break or bounce during transport it can be hours before we stop and check on the rig and these drawers can cause a lot of damage to what’s under them in that amount of time. We are very happy with the new drawer rails and would recommend using the “Rear Mount Bracket” so eliminate the floating rail problem. This piece screws into the posterior wall while the rail slides into it. Best of luck! The only good news is that when you get them fixed, you shouldn’t have to ever worry about them again!